


Starting Over

by afteriwake



Series: Simple As It Should Be [1]
Category: CSI: NY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 12:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Flack in the hospital nursing injuries from the explosion, he takes the opportunity to get to know Lindsay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starting Over

Everyone had gone to the hospital to see him. It went in order of who'd known him longest, who knew him best, who had the most seniority: Mac, Danny, Stella, Hawkes and then her. She didn't mind waiting; she and Flack weren't particularly close, but she _was_ concerned and she _did_ want to see how he was. Having everyone else go first gave her time to collect her thoughts.

She looked up as Hawkes walked out of his room. "He wants to get some sleep, but he wanted to see you," Hawkes said quietly.

She was surprised. He _wanted_ to see her? The same man that basically looked at her as though she was an idiot because she didn't understand New York ways? She nodded to Hawkes and took his place in the doorway to Flack's room. Then she took a breath, stepped through the doorway and shut the door behind her.

"I thought you'd have left by now."

He was bandaged up. She could see some burns on his arm; nothing too severe, she thought, or they'd have been bandaged too. "Why would I leave? Hawkes said you wanted to see me."

"Actually, I just wanted to see if you were still out there. Guess Hawkes heard the wrong thing."

She crossed her arms in front of her. "Well, if you're able to crack jokes, you must be fine. And I guess I should get going, since you don't think I'd want to be here anyway." She uncrossed her arms, turned, put her hand on the door.

"Monroe...wait a minute."

She stilled. "What?"

"Can you come over here? For just a minute?" She let go of the doorknob, turned again, walked over to his bed. Now that she got a closer, she saw he was hurt more than she'd thought. She must have let out a small gasp or something, because the next thing Flack said was, "I must look pretty bad."

"You want the truth or you want me to lie to you?"

"Everyone else has lied to me, so the truth would be nice."

"You look like you fought your way out of hell, hard."

He grinned slightly. "You know, not even Danny would come out and tell me how bad I looked."

"Says a lot for your taste in friends, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, well, he's got his own crap to go through."

"True." She stood there, looking down at him. "Are you in pain?"

"Yeah. Mostly the second degree burns." He moved his head slightly, moved his eyes more, looked at the IV drip. "I'm supposing that's morphine. Whatever it is, it helps."

She nodded. "Have the doctor's said how long you'll be in here?"

"No."

"You don't really want to be here, do you?" she asked shrewdly.

"Let's put it this way: would you like to be in a hospital bed looking like a mummy?"

"You don't look like a mummy," she said, reaching out and brushing something off the hospital gown he was stuck in. "At least, not a stereotypical Hollywood one."

Flack shut his eyes. "Yeah? Why's that?"

"I can still see skin." She cracked a grin. "And that hospital gown...no self-respecting mummy would be caught in that."

"Don't make me laugh, Monroe. It'll hurt too much."

"All right."

He motioned slightly to the chair nearby. "Sit. Talk. You're the only one being honest with me. Couldn't hurt to stay on your good side." He stopped for a moment, and when he started to talk again, his voice was quieter. "Besides...I barely know you."

She pulled the chair up. "Why's it so important to get to know me?" She sat down and leaned back, keeping eye contact with him.

"Don't want to die with any regrets."

"You're not going to die, Flack. Not because of this."

"Yeah, I know. But...it's making me think. Which isn't always a good thing."

She leaned forward now, an intent look in her eyes. "Says who?"

"Says...everyone. Pretty much. You've even said something like that before."

"If I did, I apologize." She tilted her head and thought a moment. "I think I remember when I said it. Though at that point, I really did believe that statement to be true."

"How come we don't like each other much?"

"Maybe because we have similar personality traits?" She shrugged. "To be honest, Flack, I really don't know."

"Yeah, well." He took a deep breath. "Neither do I."

"If you want to talk...I've got time; Mac's given me about a few hours to get some sleep and stuff. Not like I could sleep right now anyway. I'm too keyed up." She shrugged. "Or would you rather sleep?"

"I go to sleep, I keep thinking about the explosion," he said. "So...let's talk."

She nodded, leaning back again. "Okay, let's talk."


End file.
